[invidious]

Undoubtedly, this is a USP of both Suzuki and Hyundai. Fuss free ownership. My guess (and this is a guess) is that it's because both the companies have been underdogs in pretty much all other markets and are top dog in India. They don't take their market share for granted. Suzuki isn't even on the radar elsewhere playing second fiddle to Toyota, Honda and even Nissan in most markets. Hyundai, although now a pretty reliable name did have its work cut out when first launched around the world with their dud Hyundai Excel.

[Raghu M]

I can confirm that M&M has improved by miles. I have visited the showroom thrice in the last one year of ownership. Once for underbody coating, once for extended warranty and other time was to fix a vibrating IRVM. On all three occasions, the service center was super prompt. The person assigned to me was very courteous and had good knowledge on the overall work. I had a request that I be shown the underbody of my car when the coating is being done. I was asked to wait in the lounge and a person came to me promptly and asked me if I can come over and check. I was a little surprised thinking the work had already been done. But when I went to the garage, the car was all set to be worked on. They asked me to stay over for the next 15 mins and inspect their work. I am happy with M&M.

[su1978]

Originally Posted by fiat_tarun

My other regular experience has been primarily with Ford where I felt I was given so much more attention and time and I didn't need to escalate at all.

In short I think Maruti needs to ensure the dealer experience stays consistently good so escalations are not required to get the work done.

Its better with me for Ford as well. When i went for servicing, i was immediately attended to. Later i discovered that the lady service advisor was an expectant mother. Her hyper active mode made me nervous sometimes. All the issues reported were personally taken care of. The cooling systems were not performing upto the mark. It was cleaned under her supervision and she personally was sitting in the car with me along with the technician and she ensured that the cooling system was performing as per prescribed standards. Overall service was top notch and the charges were much cheaper as compared to two-wheeler maintenance(Royal Enfield charges 2000 every 3000 kilometers). Just 4500 for the paid service. Later shot an email to the dealer head appreciating the service quality and the service advisor in particular.

Compared that to Maruti where i had to wait for 90 minutes to get the tail light bulb replaced.

[anand_roy]

Maruti customer service is just top notch. I have had two experience.

When I was buying our S-Cross, the dealer was delaying the delivery with some excuse of the Dealer Management System not working.
Impatient and fed up, I complained to Maruti about the same. This really rattled the dealer.
The number of calls I got from them were countless. More importantly, they delivered the car on the same day at 8 PM.
It was very evident that they are very fearful of the complaints made by customers to Maruti.

Secondly, I made an appointment for service (the reverse parking sensor was having issues) and was at the service center at the appointed time.
However, I had to wait for more than an hour to even get the Job Card created.
What is the point of giving an appointment if they cannot even adhere to the timings?
I again made a complaint to Maruti. Again a flurry of calls from them and apologies for the delays.
And importantly, they have now better streamlined and waiting time has reduced to some extent!

[nikhilarni]

Originally Posted by Varun_G

• A lot of Indian consumers especially the older generation inspite of being educated are not aware about the consumer rights and hesitate to escalate the matter to higher authorities. Given the right guidance and push, they can take things forward
  

Hi Varun,

Sad that your dad had to go through that ordeal in the first place, but glad its being resolved.

A thought arose after reading your list of things, why not have a T-Bhp repository / thread with details like:

1. Brand Wise Customer Care Contact information
2. Escalation matrix and some general SLAs
3. If possible, some ready email template guidelines on what key elements ( like date of incident, description, location of issue, etc. )
4. T-Bhp members / volunteers with experience and who are willing to assist others ( city wise ). It always helps to have someone with the right knowledge and support while dealing which dealerships and SAs

The Mods have a wealth of information.

PS: Nice to know your dad is now a Team-BHP fan .

[Blueeyedboy]

In 10 years of Maruti ownership across 4 cars and three different cities I have seen how the service has evolved personally since in all these 10 years every single service has happened with me being physically present right beside the car inside the garage all throughout the service process (and yes, before someone asks I have been lucky in life with my SAs from whom I seek specific permission about this).

So every trip I am able to watch very closely; MSILs controls and processes. Maruti no doubt being influenced significantly by many aspects of the Japanese culture has put a very very strong process in place that places even the big shark at a real penal position of a customer complaint. Any negative feedback in Maruti matters to such an extent that the service manager will go to great lengths to sort out even the most minor issues. I will put forward three minor small experiences of mine.

1) I bought a Celerio in 2012 and after a full two years of ownership realised that the foot mats that were sold to me during purchase were not celerio specific (as billed) but rather a different SKU which belonged to Alto and were much smaller in dimensions. I casually brought up the issue when i realised by looking at the showroom vehicle during a service visit to my service adviser. He took me up to GM accessories and explained what was done. Mind it that after two years of ownership i have no legitimate claim or proof whatsoever. However, the GM apologised and issued a full new set of mats at no cost without any argument and said it must have been due to non availability of SKU on delivery date. This was at PASCO Automobiles Gurgaon.

2) After a service appointment at Prem Motors, NEXA which I was unable to honour due to some work commitment I used to get a barrage of calls, messages and whatsapps which were seemingly unending. The calls were for service, insurance and everything else car related. I put in a formal complaint with Maruti after following up with dealer a couple of times. Within a day I got a call from Prem that the pestering would stop, but after 10 days again got unsolicited calls and messages. Reopened complaint and provided strong feedback on resolution. Service Manager of Prem motors called and insisted on offering a free wash after home pickup and also the promise of never hearing from them again. This was 4 years back and they have kept their word.

3) When I took delivery of our Wagon R LPG Duo we found the ac to be problematic in terms of cooling but didn’t know what was wrong. Reported issue only during first service who pointed out that there was a big dent in the ac radiator and would require replacement of entire assembly. Prior to that we had got calls from Maruti post purchase as to whether we were happy and if everything was fine and my father was superlatively affirmative. The way the dent was formed without any damage to bumper it seemed unlikely to have been caused by regular driving post delivery since the dent was large and the gaps in the front bumper were not big enough for a foreign body insertion of such size, or that’s what we thought. We approached dealer for resolution (this was erstwhile Dewars garage, Kolkata) who didn’t corporate. We put in written complaint to Maruti (this was around 12 years ago) and within a week we got a physical visit by MSIL (not dealer) employee who inspected the car physically at our house. We were then contacted by Maruti and asked to come Maruti zonal headquarters for an interaction at their office. The manager in charge was extremely polite and basically said that we have looked at the entire history of dispatch and dealer touch ups post factory dispatch but we didn’t find any damage report by dealer after they got vehicle from factory for that specific part. But they also said they they found from the internal report that dealer did some touch up paint jobs on the car roof due to a brush with trailer ceiling while bringing car to godown (this was news to us). But that doesnt justify a pre delivery possible radiator damage. He even played us back the voice recordings of my father basically confirming that nothing was wrong. I explained my position and said that we will escalate, because we believe this is not our fault and left. Next day we got a call from dealer that Maruti has instructed to do full radiator assembly replacement at no cost to customer, they said part cost will be borne by Maruti which was around 9k at that time and dealer will bear labour cost.

And there are many more such experiences I have seen either personally or through interacting with other customers inside workshops. Now while buying a car or recommending one for Friends and family I absolutely hate that Maruti has zero focus on safety and innovation, but what I also realise now is service can take you so far which makes their products really hard to recommend.

My current car is a Baleno and visits to Pratham motors NEXA Bangalore is like an Operation theater trip for my car. The service bays are surgically clean, work process is super disciplined and sincere and I really am made to feel welcome. Probably most importantly I have started to now trust them enough to be not present at workshop floor standing beside my car all the time

It would be a sad day for me personally and I think that day is near, when I have to would have to stop buying Maruti cars due to lack of aspirational appeal, safety, build quality, but service and customer care would not be one of them.

[ais]

I've been having a brake issue with my Baleno Zeta 2017 model since a year. On hard braking, the front right wheel skids, especially on wet surfaces. The problem is more prominent in monsoons and rainy days, even when the surface is dry.

Sai Service at Andheri East, Mumbai has tried 4 times to fix the problem by cleaning the calipers, pins, discs and rotor, and bleeding the brake lines.

After the 3rd attempt failed, the manager Mr. Manish and a technician came to my residential society, which has a ramp to test the brakes safely. We tried to record the locking on video, but the wheel doesn't show as locked up- the action happens too fast to capture while panning the camera.

The matter will now be escalated. Point is, Maruti isn't giving up on me, even though the warranty has expired in September (issue was highlighted in April).

Anyone who may have faced a similar issue, please mention.

[Ma5terVain]

Originally Posted by aargee

Sir, this happens only with Maruti & Nexa in this country, may be with Hyundai as well. Try VW or Skoda which would be considered a miraculous experience. No one takes customer's complaints seriously other than MSIL in this country; no not even Domino's.


That was a specific dealer, not from manufacturer. If manufacturer implements this, the cost of servicing would certainly shoot up.

Just to give credit where it is due, I'd like to give a thumbs up to Mahindra for their excellent work on customer service, at least here in Coimbatore. We bought our Bolero from CAI Motors here and have been getting it serviced from them since purchase for the past 8 years. Without fail, every time after service is completed, we get a feedback call from Mahindra themselves and get a feedback on service. There were like 2 incidents where we had to raise complaints and they were very promptly and firmly addressed. After the second incident, the service center in-charge has ensured to thoroughly check our car before delivery (hopefully they do this for all customers). I would've opted for booking a XUV 3OO just by being impressed by their customer service but opted for a Nexon simply because XUV 3OO has a weird looking rear and has white interiors.